1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mailing card formed as a single sheet of card stock and having a viewer formed with a transparent window in one detachable portion of the card stock and matter printed on the other portion of the card stock. Observation of the printed matter through the viewer creates special visual effects for the observer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, various devices designed to create three dimensional effects when viewed have been constructed so as to be capable of transmission through the mails. However, all such prior devices have been unnecessarily complex and have entailed significant limitations that detract from their usefulness.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,283,777 discloses a greeting card which includes various sections that are disposed in a stacked arrangement for mailing and which, when unfolded, form a type of box viewer. The box viewer employs a pair of stereoscopic windows, one of which is blue and the other of which is red. However, this device involves a multiplicity of thicknesses of card stock when folded for mailing. Furthermore, the device involves a complex system of folds for deployment following receipt. Furthermore, even when all of the sheets are unfolded, the viewing windows are necessarily held at a single fixed distance from a scene to be viewed. Different viewing sheets must be stitched, stapled or otherwise secured together in order for the device to function. The several thicknesses of card stock of the folded device prevent the structure from being transmitted through the mails at the postcard rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,553 discloses a foldable viewer for producing a stereoscopic image and which is comprised of a folding, multi-thickness device that requires a pair of relatively thick, focusing lenses and a pair of pictures of the same subject viewed from slightly different vantage points. Each lens is disposed in front of a separate one of the images, which are located side by side. The several plies of the device are all locked together. The device is unfolded for use to a condition in which each of the lenses is located at a prescribed distance from a specific one of the images. The device is a box viewer which can be collapsed into several thicknesses and sent through the mails. However, due to the several thicknesses of folded paper of card stock of which it is constructed, the device cannot pass through the mails at the postcard postal rate. Furthermore, since the device requires two complete non-overlapping pictures of the same subject to be located side by side, each picture must be quite small. The lenses, therefore, must be thick so as to achieve magnification.
Other prior art devices have provided a combination of a viewer formed of a pair of anaglyphic windows attached to a postcard and secured by an attachment flap in the binding of a magazine. The user, upon reading the magazine, is invited to detach the viewer with the anaglyphic windows from the postcard and from the attachment flap in the magazine by means of lines of perforations. The anaglyphic viewer can then be used to view pictures in the magazine. The postcard could likewise be detached from the magazine attachment flap and sent through the mails to obtain video information. Thus, the anaglyphic viewer, though initially connected to the postcard, had no relationship therewith once removed from the postcard, and the postcard does not contain any printed matter that will produce special visual effects.
Postcards have previously been constructed as devices with anaglyphic images imprinted thereon. However, such postcards have relied upon the recipient to independently procure an anaglyphic viewer having different colored lenses corresponding to the different colors printed on the postcard. If the recipient of the postcard does not have an anaglyphic viewer readily at hand, the postcard is essentially useless.